We will miss Joe Shanley

"I've been extremely fortunate. I have loving parents. My wife has stayed with me for 25 years. I have a healthy, beautiful daughter and a successful business. I work with people I like at a job I truly enjoy. I can't tell you how good it feels to be driving home after my little shtick (serving as an auctioneer) and knowing that I've helped people in ways I'll never know."

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seacoastonline.com

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Posted Nov. 30, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Posted Nov. 30, 2012 at 2:00 AM

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"I've been extremely fortunate. I have loving parents. My wife has stayed with me for 25 years. I have a healthy, beautiful daughter and a successful business. I work with people I like at a job I truly enjoy. I can't tell you how good it feels to be driving home after my little shtick (serving as an auctioneer) and knowing that I've helped people in ways I'll never know."

— Joe Shanley, September 2007, quoted in a Herald article about his winning the Spirit of the Seacoast Award.

It just doesn't seem possible that Joe Shanley has died. No matter how many times we hear the news, it just won't sink in.

How can someone who was so much larger than life suddenly be gone?

Shanley made life better for thousands of people on the Seacoast and beyond. He did it in public ways by helping to raise millions of dollars through the years serving as emcee and auctioneer at most local charity events, but he did it privately, too.

For every major charity event and every effort he made on behalf of the local real estate community, there were also private conversations where, despite his busy schedule, Joe took the time to really listen to people and to help when help was needed. He was the life of the party and was not shy about being the center of attention, but he also took the time to make more personal, one-on-one connections, and you came away from time spent with Joe knowing he truly cared about you.

In our front page story on Thursday, many people commented on Joe's wicked sense of humor, and he absolutely was a funny man. In fact, the only thing that could have gotten Joe out of the real estate business would have been a career in comedy, and his friends remember what a triumph it was for him to open for comedian Steven Wright at The Music Hall several years back. We also remember what a good sport he was hosting our annual Spotlight Awards show in 2005.

Joe wasn't a one-size-fits-all comedian. The bigger your ego, the sharper the barbs he sent your way. It was positively dangerous to put on airs around Joe Shanley.

Joe received many honors from the community. He was the first recipient of the Eileen Foley Award, now given each year by Friends Forever, a local nonprofit that works to build understanding between Israeli and Palestinian youths as well as Catholic and Protestant youths in Ireland.

When giving him the award, Friends Forever said: "For over 25 years he has given generously to a multitude of nonprofit organizations, and because of his auctioneering talents, millions of dollars have been raised in support of local agencies including The Foundation for Seacoast Health, City Year, Special Olympics, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Cystic Fibrosis, Cross Roads House, New Generation, UNH Athletics, American Heart Association, Portsmouth Lions Club, Portsmouth schools and, of course, Friends Forever." We can name a dozen more small charities that benefited from Joe's efforts.

Joe received the Paul Harris Award from Rotary, that organization's top honor, as well as the Spirit of the Seacoast Award from the local United Way. He was also a past president of the N.H. Realtors Association and the owner of Shanley Realtors.

On a personal note, we have no doubt that Joe would be getting a huge laugh over the fact that Thursday's article highlighting all his accomplishments and good deeds is vying for "Most Read" on Seacoastonline with a story about a Hampton "Hometown Hottie." The pairing of these two stories would have been all the material he needed for a comedy routine that would have gotten funnier with each retelling.